Northwoods hosts Lego robotics competition

Annie Coggins and Sheila Skrabacz of the Carteret First Robotics team, set the NXT Lego Mind Storm Robot, or “Bot,” as they call it, into motion to complete its assigned task during the Lego Robotics Competition Staurday afternoon at Northwoods Park Middle School.

John Sudbrink / The Daily News

By MATTHEW ADKINS Daily News Staff

Published: Sunday, November 10, 2013 at 11:30 AM.

Three, two, one, Lego!

Students from counties across Eastern North Carolina gathered Saturday at Northwoods Middle School to participate in the First Lego League Regional Competition.

Children from 3rd to 8th grades were tasked with creating a robot using electronics and NXT Lego parts that could complete simple objectives, such as pushing an object to a certain place or flipping a switch. The challenges are designed around a central theme — which changes each year. This year’s theme was Nature’s Fury.

This is the fourth year Northwoods has hosted the competition though its robotics program, which has been in place eight years, said Northwood teacher and event organizer Peggy Pullicino.

“We started off when robotics was small and there were no regional competitions,” Pullicino said. “Everyone went straight to states in Greensboro. As the competition grew in North Carolina, regionals seemed to pop up all over the place. Since we were going every year anyway, we figured why not just host one here?”

Among the 16 participating teams this year, seven were from Onslow County, including three from Northwoods Park, three from Hunter’s Creek Elementary and one from Clyde Erwin.

Leading the team for Clyde Erwin was teacher Cathy Dalimonte, who spent the precious downtime between heats helping her team make last-minute adjustments to their robot.

“We are trying to reprogram the mistakes that happened out there,” Dalimonte said after her team’s first round. “There’s like twenty-something missions and we’ve nailed like four of them. Our group has worked really hard and this is probably one of the best teams I’ve ever had working together.”

Dalimonte said it is a challenge finding funding for robotics programs, especially for schools without extra money for expenses.

“We’ve had a few challenges with funding,” she said. “Basically, we didn’t know if we were going to be able to afford competing this year, but miss Howard, our principal, worked her magic and was able to get us enough money.”

In addition to building a robot to perform tasks, students also were responsible for creating solutions to mock natural disasters; presenting their robot design and programming; and completing teamwork evaluations.

“We want to keep doing this competition as long as we can,” Pullicino said. “We always have a good time with it and definitely want to keep it going as long as we can.”

The winners get a chance to compete at the state level in Greensboro and the winners there will be matched up against victors from across the country. The best teams from the United States will move on to a world competition.

More information on the tournament is available at FirstLegoLeague.org.

Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published
without permission. Links are encouraged.

Students from counties across Eastern North Carolina gathered Saturday at Northwoods Middle School to participate in the First Lego League Regional Competition.

Children from 3rd to 8th grades were tasked with creating a robot using electronics and NXT Lego parts that could complete simple objectives, such as pushing an object to a certain place or flipping a switch. The challenges are designed around a central theme — which changes each year. This year’s theme was Nature’s Fury.

This is the fourth year Northwoods has hosted the competition though its robotics program, which has been in place eight years, said Northwood teacher and event organizer Peggy Pullicino.

“We started off when robotics was small and there were no regional competitions,” Pullicino said. “Everyone went straight to states in Greensboro. As the competition grew in North Carolina, regionals seemed to pop up all over the place. Since we were going every year anyway, we figured why not just host one here?”

Among the 16 participating teams this year, seven were from Onslow County, including three from Northwoods Park, three from Hunter’s Creek Elementary and one from Clyde Erwin.

Leading the team for Clyde Erwin was teacher Cathy Dalimonte, who spent the precious downtime between heats helping her team make last-minute adjustments to their robot.

“We are trying to reprogram the mistakes that happened out there,” Dalimonte said after her team’s first round. “There’s like twenty-something missions and we’ve nailed like four of them. Our group has worked really hard and this is probably one of the best teams I’ve ever had working together.”

Dalimonte said it is a challenge finding funding for robotics programs, especially for schools without extra money for expenses.

“We’ve had a few challenges with funding,” she said. “Basically, we didn’t know if we were going to be able to afford competing this year, but miss Howard, our principal, worked her magic and was able to get us enough money.”

In addition to building a robot to perform tasks, students also were responsible for creating solutions to mock natural disasters; presenting their robot design and programming; and completing teamwork evaluations.

“We want to keep doing this competition as long as we can,” Pullicino said. “We always have a good time with it and definitely want to keep it going as long as we can.”

The winners get a chance to compete at the state level in Greensboro and the winners there will be matched up against victors from across the country. The best teams from the United States will move on to a world competition.

More information on the tournament is available at FirstLegoLeague.org.